Hometown hero, Ross Martin won the final AMSOIL Championship Snocross contest of the season, the Nielsen Enterprises Grand Finale at Lake Geneva Resort, presented by Traxxas.
And topping the Pro Lite field for his first victory of the season and completing the Wisconsin sweep of the top Pro classes was Colby's Andrew Lieders (Leighton Motorsports/Polaris).
Pro Open
Burlington's (Wis.) Ross Martin bested Friday night Pro Open winner Tucker Hibbert, to capture 1st place in the Nielsen Enterprises Grand Finale at Lake Geneva Resort - Martin's hometown track.
Pulling the holeshot and running in first the entire race, Martin's win gave him 2nd place in the overall Pro Open final standings, having entered tonight's race trailing Tim Tremblay by two points.
"Man, I wish every race was like this," said Martin to the approval of some 12,000 fans packing the grandstands, lodge and hillsides at Lake Geneva's Mountain Top ski hill.
Hibbert flinched just a bit off the line and lost the drag race up the initial hillclimb, coming out of the first turn in 7th place. Tremblay would quickly dispose of Kamm and give chase to Martin, letting everything hang out of this the last race of the 2012-'13 ACS season. But the defending champ would check up on a number of occasions, which allowed Martin to get away and Hibbert to get by for 2nd place.
"I'm not really happy to be up here in 3rd place," said Tremblay from the podium. "It's good to be on the podium, but I just made too many mistakes when I was trying to catch Ross. But this was the best track we raced all year and the fans were crazy."
Hibbert was possessed in his pursuit of Martin. With four laps to go in the ten-lap contest he passed three of the world's fastest snocross racers, including Tremblay with a powerful move on a steep uphill section to set his site on Martin. In his pursuit of the leaders Hibbert cracked off a blistering 1:07.402, the weekend's fastest lap time, and was making up nearly three seconds a lap on Martin.
Saturday Lake Geneva Pro Open Results
1 Ross Martin Judnick Motorsports 837 Polaris Burlington, WI
2 Tucker Hibbert Monster Energy/Arctic Cat 68 Arctic Cat Pelican Rapids, MN
3 Tim Tremblay Amsoil/Air Force/Makita 11 Ski-Doo Ste Jeanne D'Arc, Quebec
4 Kody Kamm Hentges Racing 53 Polaris Kenosha, WI
FINAL AMSOIL Championship Snocross Pro Open Overall Points
1 Tucker Hibbert 14 663 663 Monster Energy/Arctic Cat 68 Arctic Cat Pelican Rapids, MN*
2 Ross Martin 14 575 575 Judnick Motorsports 837 Polaris Burlington, WI
3 Tim Tremblay 14 572 572 Amsoil/Air Force/Makita 11 Ski-Doo SteJeanne D'Arc, Quebec
4 Kody Kamm 14 494 494 Hentges Racing 53 Polaris Kenosha, WI
Pro Lite
Andrew Lieders locked down his first Pro Lite victory of the 2012-'13 AMSOIL Championship Snocross season, using a slick inside/outside pass on Andrew Carlson midway through the final ACS Pro Lite main event of the year to take the victory ahead of 2nd place Carlson.
"I'm so glad to be up here tonight," said the Wisconsin native Lieders from the top of the Lake Geneva podium. "I've got so many friends and family here ... glad to be able to pull this off at the last race of the season. Feels awesome!"
Out of the gate first was Leighton Motorsports/Polaris' Trevor Leighton. But ISOC officials deemed that Leighton jumped the start and the black flag was drawn/pointed at Leighton, sending him to the back of the pack. Unaffected by the false start was Carlson who ripped up from quickly, leading Lieders and Royal Distributing/Ski-Doo's David Joanis.
While Carlson, Friday's 3rd place finisher at Lake Geneva, rode strong in the clean air up front, Lieders and Joanis battled like crazy - elevating Lieders' lap times and allowing him to catch up to Carlson. Lieders' 1:14.545 was the only sub-1:15 lap run all night, with Carlson clocking the second-fastest lap time of 1:15.07.
With two laps to go Lieders and Carlson had separated from Joanis, who himself had separated from the rest the pack. The six-lap Pro Lite main event was spread out well enough on Lake Geneva's ski area that lapped traffic wasn't a problem for the leaders. So when the checkers flew it was Lieders up front in 1st, followed by Carlson in 2nd and Joanis in 3rd. Rounding out the top five were Travis Muller (NSK/Foremost Insurance/Ski-Doo) in 4th and Max Taillefer (Laval West/Ski-Doo) in 5th.
Saturday Lake Geneva Snocross Pro Lite Results
1 Andrew Lieders Leighton Motorsports 857 Polaris Colby, WI
2 Andrew Carlson Carlson Motorsports 151 Polaris Elk River, MN
3 David Joanis Royal Distributing 115 Ski-Doo Cochrane,
4 Travis Muller Warnert Racing 436 Ski-Doo Windom, MN
FINAL AMSOIL Championship Snocross Pro Lite Overall Points
1 Jake Scott 14 572 572 Team LaVallee 42 Polaris Port Jefferson Station, NY
2 Andrew Lieders 14 550 550 Lieders Racing/Leighton Motorsports 857 Polaris Colby, WI
3 David Joanis 14 542 542 Royal Distributing 115 Ski-Doo Cochrane,
4 Travis Muller 14 526 526 Warnert Racing 436 Ski-Doo Windom, MN
Photos courtesy of Lissa Marsolek/Wayne Davis Photography